THE BIG FIGHT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 4

THE BIG FIGHT

AN EXPERT’S OPINION Trevor C. Wignall, the boxing critic of the London "Daily Mail,” who journeyed to Philadelphia specially to report the Dempsey-Tunney fight for that newspaper, gives some interesting impressions regarding the champion’s defeat at the hands of the young Irishman. “l'rom the moment I met Dempsey at Atlantic City,” he says, “I thought he would win, and in thinking so I shared the belief of nine out of ten people in America, but in all my cables from the training quarters I stressed the point that his mental condition was not that which a fighter should possess for the most important contest of his career. Dempsey was beaten, and badly beaten, not because lie had rested too long, but chiefly because he had been harried by writs in a way that no other fighter had ever experienced. When he climbed into the ring the idol of the great crowd—for he was almost as wildly cheered as Cnrpentier was at Jersey City—l saw at once that his mental state had become worse in the 24 hours that had elapsed since I had last seen him. He was biting his lips, mumbling to himself and creasing his brows. Just below him sat Mr Kearns, his ex-manager, the man whose lawsuits had given him the greatest trouble. Dempsey did not even glance at his former friend. Mr Kearns is reported to have lost a small fortune on the fight. Entering the ring, Dempsey looked forbidding enough, nlthough for the first time he was closely shaved; in accordance with the law of the State of Pennsylvania. But leaving it he was as sad a sight as I have ever seen. One side of his face was baehed to pulp.”